NEW ORLEANS — After UConn dispatched Houston last week by 59 points at the XL Center, Geno Auriemma was asked whether he could remember what it was like hanging out on the wrong side of the scoreline.

Normally quick-witted, Auriemma thought for a few seconds before answering. And there was good reason for that. It has been 29 years since he's coached a losing team.

"I can't say that I've been on the other end of these [games] to the extent that it happens when we were playing somebody," Auriemma said. "But there have been times when I felt the frustration. I can remember exactly where we were, who we were playing, who was on the team. I remember the feeling of frustration that no matter what we do tonight, we're not going to win. No matter what we try, it's not going to work. I have been there, and it is just a real demoralizing kind of feeling."

On Saturday, the Huskies extended their winning streak to 25 games by dumping Tulsa, 92-46. What would constitute a milestone for most programs now translates into just the seventh-longest winning streak in UConn history.

"We are the point of the season now where we need to make sure that everything we do is fine-tuned," Breanna Stewart said.

The Huskies (26-1, 15-0) play at Tulane (20-7, 11-5) on Monday. If they win, they earn at least a share of their second straight American Athletic Conference regular season title.

South Florida (13-2) still has a shot at 50 percent of it. But for that to happen, UConn would have to lose at least two of its last three games, including the finale in Tampa on March 2. And if you are keeping score, you already know UConn has won all 33 of its conference games over two seasons.

UConn's 25-game streak began Nov. 23 in the home opener against Creighton, six days after the overtime loss at Stanford ended a 47-game streak, the third-longest in the history of the program.

"I would imagine it's just very frustrating for our opponents," said Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, who has played in just 10 losses in 130 career games. "You try to focus on the things you can get better at, the goals that you have for the game. I know a lot of the teams we play come out very confident, which is the key when you are playing against us.

1. Excellent audition: In the first half of Saturday's romp, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, the greatest three-point shooter...

"You need to set goals for yourself and pursue them with confidence. You really have nothing to lose. But we have goals of our own and we set the bar so high for ourselves."

In Auriemma's 30-year career, UConn's worst loss came five years before its first national championship, 81-49 at Iowa in the second game of a 1989-90 campaign that would end at 25-6 with a second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Clemson.

"There is a reason UConn is great," DePaul coach Doug Bruno said. "And it's because they have a great leader and a great coach."

This season, any AAC foe would consider a 32-point loss to UConn a moral victory. The Huskies have won their 15 conference games by an average of 49.5 points. After the Tulsa loss, local media with its first chance to speak to Auriemma asked him a question he is frequently asked at home.

Is the level of competition in the AAC getting his team prepared for the NCAA Tournament?

"I don't know [what to say]," Auriemma said. "If you look at the scores, no. The conference we played in before [the Big East] didn't either."

But Auriemma knows it's much worse on the receiving end of the punches.

"I don't know what you learn from it," Auriemma said. "As a coach, it certainly makes you stand up straight and say, 'If I'm in this business, then I have to be willing to put up with some of this stuff.' When you are in that situation, I think you say, 'All right, next time we play these guys, it's not going to be like this. I don't know what it's going to be like, but it's not going to be like this.'

"That's the way I took it when I was in those situations. But I was young, and I thought I could fix anything and take care of anything. If that happened to me right now, I would probably choke myself on a microphone. I don't know if I could deal with it today."

On Monday, Auriemma's program also reaches another lofty milestone. It will play its 800th consecutive game without sustaining consecutive defeats, a streak that dates to back-to-back losses to Providence and Louisville in the Big East and NCAA tournaments in 1993.

During the ensuing 22 years, UConn has lost only 56 games, just 16 by double figures since the start of the championship era in 1994-95. And they've followed up each of them with a win.

"All we can do is come into every game we play intent on just making it as tough as we can on our opponent," Stewart said. "You have to compete, you have to be competitive."

On Saturday against Tulsa, Stewart (28 points) and Mosqueda-Lewis (17 points) led five Huskies in double figures. The Huskies scored 30 of the last 32 points in the first half to open a 58-23 lead over a Golden Hurricane team that actually led 3-2 and 6-4.

"It's kind of like they trick you into thinking you can stay with them," Tulsa coach Matilda Mossman said. "But then they go on a run you can't physically do anything about. You wish you could play just 10 minutes."